Stolen Picasso worth $30,000 found lying against a fence

A Pablo Picasso lithograph has been found after it was reported stolen in May from a home of jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko after an illegal teenage party, the Marin Independent Journal reported.

The Novato, Calif., home's caretaker reported the painting missing the next day. Also stolen were $5,000 worth of computers and candlesticks, the paper reported.

The teens ravaged the nine-bedroom, 19,500-square-foot home before police showed up to break up the gathering.

"They had gotten in and basically ransacked multiple rooms in the house," Novato police Sgt. Eric Riddell told the paper.

The $30,000 lithograph, titled "femme au chignon," was found by a resident leaning against a fence along Burning Tree Drive near the entrance to a trail. Police speculated that it was placed there to be found. The painting is one of 50 that were made in 1957, the paper reported.

Lazarenko was appointed prime minister of Ukraine in May 1996 but resigned the next year after a falling out with President Leonid Kuchma. He fled to the U.S. in 1999 and was arrested in New York and eventually transferred to San Francisco, where he was prosecuted on money-laundering and fraud charges.

Marin County, where the home is located, has filed to collect $2.1 million in back taxes and other fees, the paper reported.